days in a fruitless attempt on Villingen, forded the Danube
at Mosskirk, and emerged into the plains between Ulm,
Biberach, and Memmingen. Leaving Ulm to the north-west,
he made a rapid march through Weissenhorn towards the
Schmutter; and at Biberbach came in communication with
the electoral army, which had continued to maintain the
position of Augsburg.

Prince Eugene, who had made a parallel march from the
Rhine with a force of 18,000 men, reached the plains of
Hochstadt about the same time that the enemy effected their
junction. The two confederate armies were thus too distant
to afford mutual assistance; and might have been over-
whelmed by superior numbers, had the enemy united and
made a rapid movement against either before they could
come in contact. Their union was, however, by no means
easy to be accomplished. If Eugene attempted to join the
confederates in Bavaria, the Gallo-Bavarians, by a retro-
grade march, might have crossed the Danube, and inter-
rupted the communication with Franconia and Wirtemberg.
If Marlborough and the margrave retraced their steps, to
unite with Eugene, the enemy, by traversing the Lech,
might have regained possession of Bavaria, and perhaps
have forced them to abandon all the country south of the
Danube.

So critical a situation required the most accurate combi-
nations, and no less decision than activity; for at the same
time that the confederate generals were to guard against the
enterprises of an enemy occupying a central position, it was
necessary to take measures for a speedy junction of the two
armies on either bank of the Danube.

Marlborough and the margrave accordingly broke up
from Friedberg, moved by Aicha towards Neuburg, and on
the 6th of August encamped on the Paar, near Schroben-
hausen. At this awful crisis Eugene himself repaired to the
quarters of Marlborough, to concert their future operations.
As they could not maintain their footing in Bavaria, without
the possession of Ingoldstadt, the margrave was readily
persuaded to undertake the siege of a fortress which had
hitherto never opened its gates to a conqueror. A double
object was thus gained; for besides the advantage to be de-
rived from the reduction of so valuable a post, Marlborough

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